Poe's Short Stories Lesson Plan

Read “The Pit and the Pendulum” and “The Tell-Tale Heart.”

Common Core Objectives

1. 1

   CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.5

2. 2

   CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.2

3. 3

   CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.1

Note that it is perfectly fine to expand any day’s work into two days depending on the characteristics of the class, particularly if the class will engage in all of the suggested classroom exercises and activities and discuss all of the thought questions.

Content Summary for Teachers

“The Pit and the Pendulum”

In “The Pit and the Pendulum,” a man is sentenced to death. He is placed in an odd prison that at first is shaped like a square with a deep, dangerous pit in the middle. The man almost falls...